“If guns made us safer, we’d already be the safest country on the planet. In this nation, we have more guns than people, but we do not have safety.”
-Cristine Soto DeBerry
Executive Director of Prosecutors Alliance Action
By Summer Lin
Lawmakers and community leaders gathered Monday morning at Monterey Park City Hall to support legislation they hope will reduce guns on the streets, months after 11 people were killed in a mass shooting on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
The lawmakers and gun-control supporters called for adoption of three measures — AB 732, AB 733 and AB 1638 — introduced this year by Assemblymember Mike Fong (D-Alhambra), whose district includes Monterey Park. The bills are in committee in Sacramento and will be heard Tuesday by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
“Hours after the mass shooting on Lunar New Year’s Eve, I stood alongside our then-Mayor Henry Lo, Monterey Park City Council and community leaders in front of a shattered community,” Fong said at the news conference. “We lost 11 beautiful lives. Loved ones who enjoyed dancing, living life to the fullest, just going about a night on the town.”
As of Jan. 1, there are nearly 24,000 people who are prohibited from possessing a firearm in California but have one registered to their name, according to the California Department of Justice.